Braid: MLA prostitution sting arrest last thing Alberta Tories need

Premier Alison Redford’s PCs were hoping for a little diversion to distract from all the flood news. “Mike Allen Nabbed in Hooker Sting” was not what they had in mind.

In the first whiff of sex scandal to touch the PC caucus in 30 years, Allen, the party’s rookie MLA for Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo, was arrested by police in St. Paul, Minn. They say he negotiated for “sexual favours” with two female undercover officers.

Allen’s departure from the PC caucus was announced by chief government whip Steve Young, the man with just the right title for this sort of discipline.

Police in St. Paul told me Tuesday night that Allen responded to a bait ad placed by police on a website. After the deal was struck, the undercover officers arrested him for “engaging in prostitution,” which is a “gross misdemeanour” under state law.

(Hearing that, one PC at the legislature said, “Yeah, that’s gross all right.”)

The dragnet also swept up 12 other customers. It makes you wonder if those police use a waiting room.

Allen was taken to the Ramsey County lockup late Monday evening. Police took a mug shot and gave it to local reporters. He was released at about 7 a.m. Tuesday under his own recognizance, without having to pay bail.

Allen hasn’t yet been charged because the matter is "still under investigation.” This is routine, police say. He flew home and on Tuesday night said he’s ready to “face the music.”

He’s not talking about the tunes he plays as a professional jazz musician turned politician. His trip was taxpayer-funded. Social media are already alight with expense-account barbs. Does this come under room service?

“I truly regret everything that has occurred,” Allen told CTV News at Edmonton International. “I’m still waiting for charges to be laid.”

St Paul police spokesman Howie Padilla says that in Minnesota a gross misdemeanor is a serious criminal offense just short of a felony.

“We take prostitution and human trafficking very, very seriously. It is a major problem in our country and in yours.”

People are charged based on what they’ve done, Padilla said, not on who they are or the office they hold.

Allen was down there as one of the Alberta government’s representatives at a meeting of the Council of State Governors, Midwest Region.

Calgary-Fort MLA Wayne Cao, the other delegate, was apparently visiting a museum while Allen pursued his own interests. Cao’s choice was the best one possible, short of Bible study.

Allen himself hasn’t talked about any details, but in a statement issued through Young, he certainly acknowledged a very bad day in St. Paul.

“I apologize to my family, my friends, my constituents, my colleagues, my staff and to all Albertans for the embarrassment I have caused in failing to live up to the standards expected of me and the standards I expect of myself,” he said.

“I made the mistake as a result of a profound lapse in my personal judgment. It is a mistake for which there are no excuses and for which I accept full responsibility.”

Allen’s case immediately reminded legislature veterans of the strange story of Graham Harle, the former solicitor general who in 1983 was found by police with a prostitute in his government car.

After police rousted the politician who was nominally their boss, Harle said he was doing research into prostitution and often talked to prostitutes, although he hadn’t told his colleagues or staff about it.

His conclusion, he said, was that prostitution “doesn’t appear to be a problem right at the moment.”

Asked why he was investigating if it wasn’t a problem, he said “I didn’t know that, obviously, until I made some inquiries, did I?”

Harle resigned as solicitor general but stayed in caucus until the next election, a sad and silent figure.

Allen, too, loses all his committee appointments, including his seat on the prestigious Treasury Board, and chairmanship of a committee studying the Conflicts of Interest Act.

It’s certain that he will not be venturing forth on his other foreign duty, as a member of the Alaska-Alberta Bilateral Council.

Allen doesn’t intend to resign his seat or at least, not yet. He says he’s still thinking about it.

His continuing irrelevant presence at the legislature would save the PCs the pain of a byelection. For a guy in Allen’s shoes, though, every day would be painful.

Don Braid’s column appears regularly in the Herald

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